Internet speeds flu vaccine, study finds

Flu pandemic vaccine manufacturing could begin in days, not months, potentially saving great numbers of lives in case of a severe outbreak, according to a study published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine.

Starting with digitized viral genomes, researchers led by San Diego geneticist J. Craig Venter along with Rino Rappuoli of Novartis reproduced, or "rescued" flu viruses in just four days and four hours. Traditional methods take about six to nine months, Venter said in an interview about the study.

"To date, we have not encountered any influenza virus strain that cannot be rescued synthetically," the paper stated. Moreover, the synthesized viruses grown in cell cultures make better vaccines than those made by the traditional method of growing them in chicken eggs, it stated.

A CDC microbiologist demonstrates how to “candle” a chicken egg to determine the viability of eggs used in the isolation of influenza viruses. A new method of vaccine manufacture uses cell cultures to grow the virus, a much faster process.
— James Gathany

A CDC microbiologist demonstrates how to “candle” a chicken egg to determine the viability of eggs used in the isolation of influenza viruses. A new method of vaccine manufacture uses cell cultures to grow the virus, a much faster process.
/ James Gathany

The process allows immediate transfer of viral information to manufacturing centers, eliminating the time and potential hazard of shipping specimens for culture.

The project was a public-private collaboration also involving Philip R. Dormitzer of Novartis, and the Department of Health and Human Services. It also included San Diego researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute and Synthetic Genomics, which Venter also founded. Its goal was to speed up response to new flu strains, especially from potentially deadly pandemics, by using modern biotechnology and the Internet.

The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic demonstrated the need for faster and better vaccine production, Venter said in an interview.

"With H1N1, the vaccine didn't become available until two months after the pandemic peaked," Venter said. "And if H1N1 was going to be as bad as people predicted, there would have been a humongous number of deaths as a result of not having that vaccine."

The process of developing and distributing the H1N1 vaccine took about nine months, Venter said. "If it's a really egregious pandemic, I think we can get it down to six weeks."

In addition to making viruses from Internet-transmitted information, the collaboration also seeks to create a digital bank of various flu virus strains. In case a new outbreak matches one of the strains already stored, vaccine manufacturing can begin nearly immediately, Venter said.

Moving away from using eggs to grow viruses is the other part of the story, Venter said. Novartis has recently received approval to make flu vaccines in animal cell cultures at a plant in North Carolina, using what are called Madin-Darby canine kidney, or MDCK, cells. This method is faster than growing in eggs, and also is more suited to making vaccines that work in people, Venter said.

Marrying both the new cell culture technology with Internet transmission will provide great improvements over traditional flu manufacturing methods, he said.

"The combination is, we're going to put one of our synthetic facilities at the North Carolina plant, so all that has to be done with the new emerging flu strains of the future, is that the digital information is sent there, and the synthesis people will immediately make it, and it will go right into the production facility there," Venter said. "Right now we're making it in San Diego and shipping it by Federal Express, so we'll eliminate a couple of days there."